S. Soloni (settling in problems)

[kvnbyl]

I recently aquired (Fri afternoon) 5 juvenile S soloni, they were put into a 72 gal tank that already had 5 soloni (about one year old and doing well) and 9 Small rainbowfish (Bosemani). they seem to be having a diffucult time settling in. they spend most of their time huddling behind something vertical or nesting in some plants. they are so obviously uncomfortable with the tank light on that i have been leaving it off. There are many hiding places in the tank, plastic pipe, rockwork, flower pots, but they don't seem interested. I don't believe they are eating. i have tried flake foods and frozen bloodworms but they don't seem interested. they have the hollow belly look that you sometimes see with wild caught fish, but these fish had been at the place were i bought them for at least 3 weeks. Has anyone had this problem with this species? the tank is mature, ph is about 7.2, ammonia, nitrites and nitrates are at undectable levels (i have done a lot of water changes). the thing i am most worried about is the lack of interested in food. the first five i bought were tiny when i got them and they settled in right away, these guys were 1 1/2 inches long and seem to have issues. any ideas? thanks1

[Richard B]

Hi there

Soloni are a bit more delicate than a lot of other non-lake synos. Even being at a dealer for 3 weeks is not long enough for them to be neccessarily properly acclimatised. The rainbows should be good dither fish to give them more confidence. Are the established synos showing an interest or bullying towards the new introductions?

The key to good settling for these is top quality water for the first thing - if the other fish have been established for an age with no problems & you have a good water change regime (with treated & pre-tested water) things should be fine here. Subdued lighting is good or normal lighting with lots of floating plants to give lots of shade.

As for feeding - if they appear hollow bellied, then live daphnia, bloodworm, shredded earthworms (or frozen) are best as they are "soft" natural foods - you need to be careful the other tankmates dont eat it all though.

additionally high oxygenation & a bit of water circulation would be good.

My lone individual doesnt like being with active bottom dwellers at all - this should be avoided! It is fine with inactive bottom dwellers (mine is in with liosomadoras & marbled lancer at the moment).

All this presumes that (if they are w/c, there are no internal problems with aprasites in the gut etc (like tapeworm) which very occasionally is the case

[jippo]

I have one old lone soloni and he likes to hang vertical in plants too. It's very rare that I see him moving during lights on but it moves quit much at night time. He never comes to eat daytime but I feed him from hand so he's really not so scary, I just think that it's natural behavior to avoid bright light.

In same tank there is 12 S. brichardi, S. camelopardalis, S. ocellifer, S. eupterus and 2 S. robbianus. Soon I hope that I get own waterfall tank for soloni, camelopardalis and brichardis.

[kvnbyl]

finally, after a week, they seem to be doing better, i rearranged the hiding places in the tank to put the newbies on an more of an equal footing with the established synos. they are eating a little (love frozen blood worms) and i haven't lost any. some of my established have become as restless as the new fish, nesting in plants and cruising around when the lights are on; before i never saw them. maybe the rainbows are doing a good dither fish job? i expected them to be somewhat like my petricola, and to a lesser extent multipunctatus who i see out all the time. delicate is a good word for them. i have been doing 40% water changes every other day, i will change this to 50% twice a week like i do with ny other tanks. the place where i bought them said they had been treated for parasites as a matter of course, so i will keep an eye on them. Would a small power head down at the bottom of the tank be a good idea for water circulation? the tank has two fluval filters but there's not a whole lot of water movement at the bottom. thanks for the advice!

[Richard B]

Good to see they're settling at last - they can be a bit fussy & yes, delicate is a good word to descibe them initially - any chance of some pics?

[jippo]

Would a small power head down at the bottom of the tank be a good idea for water circulation? the tank has two fluval filters but there's not a whole lot of water movement at the bottom. thanks for the advice!

That would be great, and more is better. Set it like it blows throgh front glass, then you can see your fishes when they are swimming in stream.